In the production of ice lollies a flavoured liquid is poured into moulds each comprising several hundred cavities. The moulds are then placed inside a refrigerator and left until the flavoured liquid has frozen throughout. The moulds are then removed from the refrigerator and inverted. A stream of warm air is then blown onto the back of the moulds to melt the outer surface of the lollies. As the surface melts the lollies slide downwardly out of their respective cavities.
It will be appreciated that the application of warm air requires heat to be applied to the moulds which then has to be taken out when the moulds are subsequently cooled. Furthermore, any sculptured features in the lollies become blurred and ill defined due to surface melting.
Various means have been tried to facilitate removal of the lollies from their moulds without warming. Such means include coating the surface of the mould with a low friction coating, for example TEFLON ( RTM ), and coating the mould with an organic release agent. These attempts have however been totally unsuccessful.